Best Kids Parties: Hip Hip Hooray

My Party

Name: Juno (1)Location: Centerville, Utah

My 3rd daughter Juno has hip dysplasia, which means her hip socket is too shallow. We spent much of her first year treating it, including two different hip braces, surgery, and a body cast for three months. Her hip is finally showing improvement, so I wanted to celebrate that at her party. Hence the theme of her first birthday party: Hip Hip Hooray. Get it? HIP HIP Hooray!

Her party was a cross between a carnival inspired party and the quintessential children's birthday party. I decorated with paper lanterns and pom poms and memoribilia from her first year, including her body cast.

We try to do a service project at each child's birthday party, and so at Juno's party we asked everyone to decorate blank cards with crayons and stickers for patients at the children's hospital where Juno had surgery earlier this year. Along with card decorating, I had a photo booth set up for the guests to take silly pictures. I called it Juno's Sillybration Station and provided a basket full of props and a hand-painted chevron backdrop.

As our guests left, they each took homemade cake batter bark full of sprinkles as a favor. I packaged the bark in clear plastic bags and nestled them in a vintage child-size suitcase that belonged to Juno's grandmother.

As Apartment Therapy's Managing Editor, Carrie covers design and modern homelife with children. A lapsed librarian, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two kids and is in contention to break the record for most hours spent at the playground.